Minor Premier Football

Tory Gaels 1-10
Ballysteen/St Senans 0-11

A Ballysteen / St Senans amalgamation gave a good account of themselves in the opening round of the Minor Premier Football Championship but ultimately came up short against a strong Tory Gaels (Croom/Crecora) side.  Tory Gaels had a high scoring win in their opening game against Monaleen but our lads ensured they didn’t have things so easily this time.

Tory made the most of their possession early in the game and ran up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead, with Brian Neville getting our sole score in the opening period. Things finally began to click for the Shannonsiders and we grew into the game, with Richard Hayes getting on top in midfield and our half back line getting more advanced we rattled off 4 scores in a row to get our noses in front, the pick of those being a Jack Neville point. Tory Gaels responded to level things but a fine score from John Shaughnessy following a great team move saw us go in a point ahead at half time.

Play had barely resumed for the second half when a fine move from Tory ended with the ball being rifled to the top corner, leaving Thomas Lane in goals with no chance. We responded with a score but this was quickly followed up with a Tory free and from a comfortable position at the break we now found ourselves 3 points down within 5 minutes of the restart. Just as in the first half our lads weren’t going to take things lying down and proceeded to dominate the next 15 minutes, quickly reducing the deficit with scores from Conor Barry and Richard Hayes from placed balls. We finally got our noses in front and could have sealed the game had luck been on our side. A fisted effort from Mick Boyce went narrowly wide, then minutes later Mick was again denied when a fine effort struck the underside of the crossbar, bounced the wrong side of the line and was cleared.

This spurred Tory Gaels back into life and they dominated the closing proceedings, ruthlessly punishing some careless mistakes on our behalf. They closed out the game kicking 3 consecutive scores to win the game on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-11. This was a fine performance from Ballysteen/St Senans and with a bit more luck the result could have been different. They now move onto play Ballybrown in Ballysteen on Tuesday night where nothing less than a win will do. All supporters are asked to turn out and support the lads in the first top level championship game to be played at the sportsfield.

Team: Thomas Lane, Daniel Conroy, Dara Fennessy, Eoin McSweeney, Dave Hanly, Willie O’Meara, Evan O’Donoghue, Richard Hayes, Corey Flynn, Mick Boyce, Jack Neville, Darragh Ranahan, Conor Barry, Brian Neville (Declan Guerin ht), John O’Shaughnessy